Strategizing Against the Flame: What's Next for California's Wildfires?

• Date: 01 October 2019

10-2019 NEWS & ANALYSIS 49 ELR 10907

DIALOGUE

Strategizing Against the Flame:

What’s Next for California’s

Wildf‌ires?

Summary

e 2018 wildre season was the deadliest and most

destructive on record in California, destroying thou-

sands of structures. Gov. Gavin Newsom created a

strike force to develop a comprehensive strategy to

address the destabilizing eect of wildres on the

state’s electric utilities. In April 2019, the strike force

issued a report outlining a vision for clean energy poli-

cies to reduce the impacts of climate change on wild-

re risk, and in July, the newly created Commission

on Catastrophic Wildre Cost and Recovery released

its recommendations. On June 12, 2019, the Environ-

mental Law Institute and Nossaman LLP hosted an

expert panel that explored wildre liability, the pro-

posed regulatory components set forth by the strike

force report, the viability of various wildre mitiga-

tion strategies, cost recovery options, inverse condem-

nation, and potential for incorporatin g climate impact

research into wildre policymaki ng. Below, we present

a transcript of the discussion, which has been edited

for style, clarity, and space considerations.

Willis Hon (moderator) is an Associate at Nossama n LLP.

Lloyd Dixon is Direc tor of the RAND Center for

Catastrophic Risk Ma nagement and Compensation and

Senior Ec onomist at R AND Corporation.

Kathleen Harrison is a Principal Geologist with

Geosyntec C onsultants.

David Pedersen is General Manager at the Las Virgenes

Municipal Water District.

Willis Hon: I’m pleased to welcome you all for a topic that

I believe is very timely and importa nt. As we sit here, the

California Legislatu re and other stakeholders and policy-

makers are tr ying to come up with solutions to addres s one

of the biggest issues facing us today: wildres. e discus-

sion today is intended to provide an overview of these cur-

rent legislative and policy eorts and to highlight some of

the relevant issues that impact di erent stakeholders.

First, I’d like to introduce the panel. Lloyd Dixon is a

senior economist and the director of the Center for Cat-

astrophic Risk Mana gement and Compensation at the

RA ND Cor poration, a nonprot, nonpartisa n research

organization that seek s to improve policy and decision-

making through research and ana lysis. Lloyd has written

extensively on issues regarding compensation in e vents t hat

cause widespread loss including wildres, and has testied

before the legislature on wildre and insurance issues.

Kathleen Harri son is a principa l geologist based in Cali-

fornia at Geosyntec Consultants, a consulting and engi-

neering rm that works with private- and public-sector

clients to address new ventures and complex problems

involving our environment, natural resources, and civil

infrastruct ure. I invited Kathleen because immediately

following her joining Geosyntec, she was immersed in

around-the- clock emergency e orts following t he devastat-

ing San Diego wildres in 2007. She has extensive experi-

ence teaching classes on post-re and erosion control and

other emergency mitigation measures.

Finally, we have David Pedersen. He is the general man-

ager of Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which pro-

vides potable water, wastewater treat ment, recycled water

distribution, and biosolids composting services for custom-

ers in Agoura Hills, C alabasas, Hidden Hills, Westlake

Village, and the surrounding unincorporated areas of Los

Angeles County. Last November, Dave led Las Virgenes

Municipal Water District through the emergency response

and recovery after the Woolsey Fire in Ventura County,

which burned more than 97,000 acres and destroyed more

than 1,000 homes, including hundreds in the L as Virgenes

service area.

We’re looking forward to hearing your perspectives on

these important issues, but, rst, I wa nt to provide a gen-

eral overview and road map of our discussion. I’m going

to provide a summary of the recent developments and

Copyright © 2019 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.